This Sunday’s essay in the New York Times Book Review, “Name That Book,” by Henry Alford, is a multiple choice quiz consisting of 16 questions along the lines of:

7. Toni Morrison wanted to call “Paradise,” her first novel after she won the Nobel Prize:
a. “Antipathy”
b. “Acrimony”
c. “War”
d. “Bloodsoak’t Chalice”

Oddly, three of the questions are about Rick Moody titles, and he even gets a cameo in one of the multiple choice answers, which is fine if you’re a Rick Moody fan. The quiz is amusing, but, once again, I find myself asking why the NYT Book Review is wasting a page on fluff like this instead of providing meaty reviews of literary fiction…while the crime column thrives and the “behind the bestsellers” column makes a weekly appearance, literary fiction reviews are exceedingly difficult to find.